2008 Budget Proposal for USPTO.

According to this press release, the President’s fiscal year 2008 budget request for the USPTO is $1.916 billion. The press release also heralded the USPTO’s recent achivements, such as completing 332,000 patent applications in 2006, the largest number ever, while achieving the lowest patent allowance error rate (3.5%) in over 20 years. At 54%, the patent allowance rate in 2006 was also the lowest on record.

The press release further states that, if the budget is approved, the USPTO anticipates hiring an additional 1,200 patent examiners and to continue expanding the agency’s telework and electronic processing efforts.